Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before rotating through the escape zone, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.